Alleghany County, North Carolina / Whitehead / Air Bellows / Blue Ridge Mountains / mountain music / and so on. An open journal of one person in one place in one time.

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Friday, March 14, 2014

DONKEY TALK

jenny gives jack an ass chewing

It was several years ago my friend Bette gave me a half gallon of Lapsang Soochong leaf tea. I used about half of it for hot tea and then turned to coffee, found Kenyan and Ethiopian coffee and there's no turning back any time soon. With a quart of the tea leaves left, I've thought often of going back to tea, but am enjoying the coffee too much right now. It finally came to me to make cold tea of it. It seems kind of a travesty to make cold tea of the most luxurious of hot teas. It makes cold tea much better than Lipton. I've made cold tea of several different flavors of teas that value flavor. When I sit here writing, I like having some liquid refreshment nearby. I don't want sugar drinks primarily because I prefer not to send my meager money supply to paying a CEO of a multi-national corporation that is strangling the American workers. As one of the working class instead of the ruling class, I don't have say in anything, but I do have a choice where I spend my money. I shop locally in the belief that what little I contribute to the economy, maybe five percent of the money I spend stays in the local economy. I buy gas, my money goes to the Cayman Islands. Nearly everything at the grocery store comes from multi-national corporations. I can't stop that progression, but I can contribute to it as little as I'm able. I have always driven a used vehicle. When I buy a car from an individual, my money helps that individual. I did some house painting in the late 1980s for a very interesting woman named Dewitt Hanes. She emphasized the importance of helping local businesses and artisans. She said when you buy something, you're contributing to the individual you buy from. It's important to pay attention to where I put my money. I took it for sage counsel, inclined in that direction anyway. I thank friend Bette for every sip of this good tea. It makes a delicious cold tea.

jack

The donkeys are grazing little bites of green grass. The ground is starting to turn green under the soft tan remains of last year's grass. I stepped into the unknown this morning walking through the gate with hay for the donkeys. I'd given them chunks of carrots over the fence. By the time I'd run out, Jenny turned on the calf and made it jump back from her. She turned on Jack and made him step back. Her ears were back and she was snorting at them, stomping on the ground. Once through the gate, I stopped and let them tear off a chew before I carry the hay into the meadow a ways. Jenny was rambunctious. She was on one side of me and Jack on the other side. Both were so close they were squeezing me between them somewhat. I thought this is a good chance for a test, standing this close between them when they are on the verge of a kick fest. Jenny jerked around with her rear end right up against me and she hopped up in the back like she does when she kicks, but she didn't kick. Jack was getting antsy about her and he turned his back and his rear up against me and did not kick. I knew they wouldn't. I've become aware that their kicking is mostly nudges, so I wasn't concerned about getting kicked. I wanted to see if one of them would kick me by mistake. No. I stepped out from between them and Jenny reached out and touched Jack with a back hoof just because she felt like she wanted to. I have to confess I liked the feeling of them both up against me on either side going at each other with their heads and their rumps. It felt good because I had confidence neither one would kick me. They demonstrated their unwillingness to kick the ice cream man.

jack

Jenny worked herself up into Alpha Donkey and followed me the most aggressively she ever has. I felt her powerful aggressive energy right behind me, her nose about a foot from my back. Her ears were back and she was snorting. It wasn't for the ice cream man. She was telling Jack and the calf to stay back, Alpha Donkey means first. I felt no alarm once I realized for certain her snorting was for the ones behind her. Every morning I put hay down for Jenny first and Jack stopped by for a munch before I was out of the way. Jenny turned on him, ears back, snorting, and I was between them. This morning I was beside Jack with some hay to carry to the next place to put some down, at least two donkey lengths away. He started pushing me sideways, so I walked along being directed by him physically. I like for them to deal with me physically like that. They communicate physically more than we humans do. We've lost that with language. I like to deal with pre-language people and experience their methods of communication. Jack wasn't being dangerous with me. It felt like he was being friendly, his way of touching me as I touch him. He doesn't have hands to touch me with, so he used his side. It felt like he was also asking me to put my hands on him. He usually does not like for me to be touching him, though sometimes he likes it. I ran my hand over his back and neck. It felt like that was what he wanted. He didn't want much. Just a touch. I sat on the ground beside his mound of hay, talked to him while he munched and took pictures. By now they are used to that black thing I hold and point at them. They were apprehensive at first. They see it is at least harmless. One of my dogs, Sadie, caught onto what I was doing with the camera and there came a time when I pointed a camera at her, she'd pose. She was the only one of my pets to figure out what a camera did.

jenny and calf

It was warm enough today with sunlight that I could sit on the ground and take all the pictures I wanted of Jack. I went over to Jenny and sat beside her mound of hay, talked to her and took pictures. I like to listen to them munching their hay. Both Jenny and Jack munch like I'm not there, looking like they are paying me no mind, but I know they are listening. They listen closely. I automatically talk to Jenny the way we talk to girls and talk to Jack the way we talk to boys. We tell girls how pretty they are, how sweet they are. We tell boys what men they are, how strong they are. I find it funny in myself. I like to believe I'm beyond that cliché mind, but I'm not. It's as cultural a thing as automatically taking a dog for male and a cat for female. Of a cat, "What's her name?" Of a dog, "What's his name?" I tell Jenny she's a beautiful donkey. I tell Caterpillar she's a beautiful cat. I tell Jack he's a good donkey, a powerful donkey. It's making Jenny jealous when I talk to Jack now. Talking to Jack instigated their ruckus this morning. I'd been talking to Jenny while she chewed carrot. I turned attention to Jack and talked to him. Jenny turned aggressive on Jack. The ice cream man is Jenny's friend, not Jack's. Jack pays it no mind. Jack would rather lie down in the sun and soak up some rays. Jenny's alpha status keeps her busy. I have found it works best when I give Jack attention first. It makes Jenny jealous and she wants attention too. If I give her attention first, she avoids it. I've become more relaxed with my fingers and their teeth too. This morning half of my first two fingers went into Jenny's mouth with the carrot chunk. She didn't even touch them with her teeth. She will nip at my shirt sometimes in play. I like them being physical with me. It says they are comfortable enough to talk to me in their language. I feel like they are teaching me their language.

Once life is finished it acquires a sense,up to that point it has not got a sense,its sense is suspended and therefore ambiguous.

---PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.

---BARBARA KINGSOLVER

Brace yourself. The American Empire is over and the descent is going to be horrifying.

---Chris Hedges

Start learning to love by loving the people you cannot like. The more you remember others with kindness and generosity, the more you forget your self and when you forget yourself completely, you find God.

---Meher Baba

GO GREEN WITH BLUEGRASS.IT'S NATURAL.

---TIM WHITE, banjo the VWBoys

DEATH CANNOT HARM MEMORE THAN YOU HAVE HARMED ME,MY BELOVED LIFE.

---Louise Gluck, from her poem OCTOBER

THROW ENOUGH STONESAND YOU BUILD A WALL.

---Carole Roberts

STAY AWAY FROM IMPORTANT PEOPLE.

---Wiley Maxwell Jr

A THROW OF THE DICE WILL NEVER ABOLISH CHANCE.

---Man Ray

GOD DOES NOT PLAY DICE WITH THE UNIVERSE.

---Albert Einstein

American old-time music quarterly

The beliefs and opinions of a person often constitute a very superficial layer of the human psyche. They do not have any integral relationship with the deeper psychic forces. They remain in one region of the mind without bringing about any radical changes in the core of personality, which determines the attitude to life.

---Meher Baba

Justice is what love looks like in public.

--- Cornell West

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

---Leo Tolstoy

The mountains don't lie to you; they stand for the things that don't change, that stay true to themselves. They've been around a hundred million years and they'll be around a good while more, I reckon. They keep you humble. They put you in your place.

An excellent catalog of music from the Central Blue Ridge

There are more love songs than anything else.If songs could make you do somethingwe'd all love one another.

---Frank Zappa

on playing a banjo:

WHEN YOU SCREW UPTRY TO COVER IT UPLIKE A CAT.

---Wiley Maxwell, Jr.

ACTION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PRAYER.

---Dalai Lama

THE WHOLE SECRET LIES IN CONFUSING THE ENEMY SO HE CANNOT FATHOM OUR REAL INTENT.

Sun TzuThe Art of War

WE'LL KNOW OUR DISINFORMATIONPROGRAM IS COMPLETE WHENEVERYTHING THE AMERICAN PEOPLEBELIEVE IS FALSE.

---Wm Casey CIA Director 1981

In this unbroken intense booming symphony, suddenly there is the tinkling of a bell so faint that I almost think I am hearing things. It is like the trembling cry of a cicada on a late autumn night. It is so ephemeral, so delicate, so pitiful, yet it is so distinct and clear above the chaotic booming of the drum that it is unmistakable.